Axial motion and scalar transport in stretched spiral vortices

We consider the dynamics of axial velocity and of scalar transport in the stretched-spiral vortex model of turbulent fine scales. A large-time asymptotic solution to the scalar advection-diffusion equation, with an azimuthal swirling velocity field provided by the stretched spiral vortex, is used together with appropriate stretching transformations to determine the evolution of both the axial velocity and a passive scalar. This allows calculation of the shell-integrated three-dimensional spectra of these quantities for the spiral-vortex flow. The dominant term in the velocity (energy) spectrum contributed by the axial velocity is found to be produced by the stirring of the initial distribution of axial velocity by the axisymmetric component of the azimuthal velocity. This gives a k(-7/3) spectrum at large wave numbers, compared to the k(-5/3) component for the azimuthal velocity itself. The spectrum of a passive scalar being mixed by the vortex velocity field is the sum of two power laws. The first is a k(-1) Batchelor spectrum for wave numbers up to the inverse Batchelor scale. This is produced by the axisymmetric component of the axial vorticity but is independent of the detailed radial velocity profile. The second is a k(-5/3) Obukov-Corrsin spectrum for wave numbers less than the inverse Kolmogorov scale. This is generated by the nonaxisymmetric axial vorticity and depends on initial correlations between this vorticity and the initial scalar field. The one-dimensional scalar spectrum for the composite model is in satisfactory agreement with experimental measurement

Aging dynamics of ferromagnetic and reentrant spin glass phases in stage-2 Cu0.80_{0.80}C0.20_{0.20}Cl2_{2} graphite intercalation compound

Aging dynamics of a reentrant ferromagnet stage-2 Cu$_{0.8}$Co$_{0.2}$Cl$_{2}$ graphite intercalation compound has been studied using DC magnetic susceptibility. This compound undergoes successive transitions at the transition temperatures $T_{c}$ ($\approx 8.7$ K) and $T_{RSG}$ ($\approx 3.3$ K). The relaxation rate $S_{ZFC}(t)$ exhibits a characteristic peak at $t_{cr}$ below $T_{c}$. The peak time $t_{cr}$ as a function of temperature $T$ shows a local maximum around 5.5 K, reflecting a frustrated nature of the ferromagnetic phase. It drastically increases with decreasing temperature below $T_{RSG}$. The spin configuration imprinted at the stop and wait process at a stop temperature $T_{s}$ ($<T_{c}$) during the field-cooled aging protocol, becomes frozen on further cooling. On reheating, the memory of the aging at $T_{s}$ is retrieved as an anomaly of the thermoremnant magnetization at $T_{s}$. These results indicate the occurrence of the aging phenomena in the ferromagnetic phase ($T_{RSG}<T<T_{c}$) as well as in the reentrant spin glass phase ($T<T_{RSG}$).Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures; submitted to Physical Review

DPVis: Visual Analytics with Hidden Markov Models for Disease Progression Pathways

Clinical researchers use disease progression models to understand patient status and characterize progression patterns from longitudinal health records. One approach for disease progression modeling is to describe patient status using a small number of states that represent distinctive distributions over a set of observed measures. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) and its variants are a class of models that both discover these states and make inferences of health states for patients. Despite the advantages of using the algorithms for discovering interesting patterns, it still remains challenging for medical experts to interpret model outputs, understand complex modeling parameters, and clinically make sense of the patterns. To tackle these problems, we conducted a design study with clinical scientists, statisticians, and visualization experts, with the goal to investigate disease progression pathways of chronic diseases, namely type 1 diabetes (T1D), Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As a result, we introduce DPVis which seamlessly integrates model parameters and outcomes of HMMs into interpretable and interactive visualizations. In this study, we demonstrate that DPVis is successful in evaluating disease progression models, visually summarizing disease states, interactively exploring disease progression patterns, and building, analyzing, and comparing clinically relevant patient subgroups.Comment: to appear at IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphic

The Discrete Frenet Frame, Inflection Point Solitons And Curve Visualization with Applications to Folded Proteins

We develop a transfer matrix formalism to visualize the framing of discrete piecewise linear curves in three dimensional space. Our approach is based on the concept of an intrinsically discrete curve, which enables us to more effectively describe curves that in the limit where the length of line segments vanishes approach fractal structures in lieu of continuous curves. We verify that in the case of differentiable curves the continuum limit of our discrete equation does reproduce the generalized Frenet equation. As an application we consider folded proteins, their Hausdorff dimension is known to be fractal. We explain how to employ the orientation of $C_\beta$ carbons of amino acids along a protein backbone to introduce a preferred framing along the backbone. By analyzing the experimentally resolved fold geometries in the Protein Data Bank we observe that this $C_\beta$ framing relates intimately to the discrete Frenet framing. We also explain how inflection points can be located in the loops, and clarify their distinctive r\^ole in determining the loop structure of foldel proteins.Comment: 14 pages 12 figure

Correlation of Fermi photons with high-frequency radio giant pulses from the Crab pulsar

To constrain the giant pulse (GP) emission mechanism and test the model of Lyutikov (2007) for GP emission, we have carried out a campaign of simultaneous observations of the Crab pulsar at gamma-ray (Fermi) and radio (Green Bank Telescope) wavelengths. Over 10 hours of simultaneous observations we obtained a sample of 2.1x10^4 giant pulses, observed at a radio frequency of 9 GHz, and 77 Fermi photons, with energies between 100 MeV and 5 GeV. The majority of GPs came from the interpulse (IP) phase window. We found no change in the GP generation rate within 10-120 s windows at lags of up to +-40 min of observed gamma-ray photons. The 95% upper limit for a gamma-ray flux enhancement in pulsed emission phase window around all GPs is 4 times the average pulsed gamma-ray flux from the Crab. For the subset of IP GPs, the enhancement upper limit, within the IP emission window, is 12 times the average pulsed gamma-ray flux. These results suggest that GPs, at least high-frequency IP GPs, are due to changes in coherence of radio emission rather than an overall increase in the magnetospheric particle density.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical Journal, February 201

XMM-Newton spectral and timing analysis of the faint millisecond pulsars PSR J0751+1807 and PSR J1012+5307

We present XMM-Newton MOS imaging and PN timing data of the faint millisecond pulsars PSR J0751+1807 and PSR J1012+5307. We find 46 sources in the MOS field of view of PSR J0751+1807 searching down to an unabsorbed flux limit of 3 x 10^-15 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10.0 keV). We present, for the first time, the X-ray spectra of these two faint millisecond pulsars. We find that a power law model best fits the spectrum of PSR J0751+1807, Gamma=1.59+/-0.20, with an unabsorbed flux of 4.4 x 10^-14 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10.0 keV). A power law is also a good description of the spectrum of PSR J1012+5307, Gamma=1.78+/-0.36, with an unabsorbed flux of 1.2 x 10^-13 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10.0 keV). However, a blackbody model can not be excluded as the best fit to this data. We present some evidence to suggest that both of these millisecond pulsars show pulsations in this X-ray band. We find some evidence for a single broad X-ray pulse for PSR J0751+1807 and we discuss the possibility that there are two pulses per spin period for PSR J1012+5307.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

First-order transition between a small-gap semiconductor and a ferromagnetic metal in the isoelectronic alloys FeSi1−x_{1-x}Gex_x

The contrasting groundstates of isoelectronic and isostructural FeSi and FeGe can be explained within an extended local density approximation scheme (LDA+U) by an appropriate choice of the onsite Coulomb repulsion, $U$ on the Fe-sites. A minimal two-band model with interband interactions allows us to obtain a phase diagram for the alloys FeSi$_{1-x}$Ge$_{x}$. Treating the model in a mean field approximation, gives a first order transition between a small-gap semiconductor and a ferromagnetic metal as a function of magnetic field, temperature, and concentration, $x$. Unusually the transition from metal to insulator is driven by broadening, not narrowing, the bands and it is the metallic state that shows magnetic order.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Allocation in Practice

How do we allocate scarcere sources? How do we fairly allocate costs? These are two pressing challenges facing society today. I discuss two recent projects at NICTA concerning resource and cost allocation. In the first, we have been working with FoodBank Local, a social startup working in collaboration with food bank charities around the world to optimise the logistics of collecting and distributing donated food. Before we can distribute this food, we must decide how to allocate it to different charities and food kitchens. This gives rise to a fair division problem with several new dimensions, rarely considered in the literature. In the second, we have been looking at cost allocation within the distribution network of a large multinational company. This also has several new dimensions rarely considered in the literature.Comment: To appear in Proc. of 37th edition of the German Conference on Artificial Intelligence (KI 2014), Springer LNC

Investigating the effect of precession on searches for neutron-star-black-hole binaries with Advanced LIGO

The first direct detection of neutron-star-black-hole binaries will likely be made with gravitational-wave observatories. Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be able to observe neutron-star-black-hole mergers at a maximum distance of 900Mpc. To acheive this sensitivity, gravitational-wave searches will rely on using a bank of filter waveforms that accurately model the expected gravitational-wave signal. The angular momentum of the black hole is expected to be comparable to the orbital angular momentum. This angular momentum will affect the dynamics of the inspiralling system and alter the phase evolution of the emitted gravitational-wave signal. In addition, if the black hole's angular momentum is not aligned with the orbital angular momentum it will cause the orbital plane of the system to precess. In this work we demonstrate that if the effect of the black hole's angular momentum is neglected in the waveform models used in gravitational-wave searches, the detection rate of $(10+1.4)M_{\odot}$ neutron-star--black-hole systems would be reduced by $33 - 37$. The error in this measurement is due to uncertainty in the Post-Newtonian approximations that are used to model the gravitational-wave signal of neutron-star-black-hole inspiralling binaries. We describe a new method for creating a bank of filter waveforms where the black hole has non-zero angular momentum, but is aligned with the orbital angular momentum. With this bank we find that the detection rate of $(10+1.4)M_{\odot}$ neutron-star-black-hole systems would be reduced by $26-33$. Systems that will not be detected are ones where the precession of the orbital plane causes the gravitational-wave signal to match poorly with non-precessing filter waveforms. We identify the regions of parameter space where such systems occur and suggest methods for searching for highly precessing neutron-star-black-hole binaries